Conventionally, there have been proposed component mounting apparatuses which have two mounting stages each having a mounting head in order to execute manufacturing with a high efficiency (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 2005-72444).
The component mounting apparatus mounts components onto boards by causing the two mounting heads to alternately pick up the components that are semiconductor chips from a diced wafer. In this way, the component mounting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 2005-72444 mounts the components onto the boards by causing the two mounting heads to pick up the components from the wafer in cooperation with each other. This makes it possible to downsize component mounting apparatuses, and increase space productivity. Furthermore, this makes it possible to improve the workability of supplying wafers.
However, wafers having a diameter of 8 inches are being replaced by wafers having a diameter of 12 inches in these days. On the other hand, the movable range for a mounting head is limited. Hence, in the case of using a wafer having an increased diameter, an area where a mounting head cannot suction any component (hereinafter referred to as “suction-restricted area”) is generated in the wafer. Hence, such a suction-restricted area may remain in the end depending on an order of suctioning components. A suction-restricted area is referred to as an area where one of the mounting heads cannot suction any component while the other mounting head can suction components. In this case, the remaining components are mounted onto boards by using only one of the mounting heads and by pausing the other mounting head. This disables the mounting heads to mount components in cooperation with each other, which results in a problem of a poor efficiency in manufacturing boards on which components are mounted.